This first major retrospective of the work of Christian Rothacher (1944 – 2007) introduces an Aarau artist who, around 1970, was among the protagonists of the young Swiss avant-garde, yet early on, out of profound scepticism, withdrew from the art scene and henceforth quietly created an eminently poetic œuvre.

In the freedom of the Ziegelrain studio collective and following an intense brush with Pop Art, Rothacher undertook his first attempts at transcending the two-dimensional picture, working with deliberately “poor” materials such as wood, leather and hide. Blending conceptual considerations with existential experiences, these attempts led to highly distinctive and quite playful and humorous imagery starting as early as 1970. The exhibition at the Aargauer Kunsthaus renders Christian Rothacher’s œuvre accessible through central thematic strands and image clusters, in the process uncovering his work’s many facets, including some that hitherto have remained largely unknown.